Time's Orphan (episode)
An accident on the planet Golana sends Molly O'Brien through a time portal three hundred years into the past into an uninhabited world. Beamed back too late, Molly returns to the present eighteen years old with no immediate recollection of her life or her family. Summary For the first time since the beginning of the Dominion War, the O'Brien family is reunited and they go on a picnic on Golana to enjoy their time together. There, Miles O'Brien is living a moment of true happiness and makes the promise that they will never be apart again. He will put in for a transfer should the war heat up again. Their picnic is cut short when they hear Molly screaming, not far away. When Miles arrives in the cavern she was playing in, it is only to find his daughter hanging from a cliff over a mysterious mist. He is not able to get her up and the little girl falls into the phenomenon. It is discovered later that the phenomenon was caused by an old device, thought to be a time portal. A science team from Deep Space 9 tries to figure the device out and even if the functioning is not clear, they are finally able to reopen it and beam Molly back, based on her DNA signature. To everyone's surprise, the Molly that materializes in front of them is ten years older. The eighteen-year-old girl is brought back to the station with her parents. Even if she is wary and totally unable to communicate at first, she eventually recognizes her parents and grows less suspicious. She however misses her "home" and Miles and Keiko decide to bring her into a holosuite to cheer her up. The idea proves to be a good one but eventually Quark interrupts, as a couple of Klingons have reserved the holosuite and refuse to have O'Brien pay for their time. Miles tries to tell Molly the bad news, but when she completely ignores him, he is forced to end the program. The planet disappears, and Molly is stunned to find herself now in the small, confined room but the confusion soon gives way to anger, and Molly leaves the holosuite in a feral rage, and starts to tear Quark's apart. After assaulting a few people, a Tarkalean approaches her to which she respondes by stabbing him in the gut with a broken bottle. Just then Odo and his deputies arrive and stun Molly, but the damage is done. The Tarkalean survives but presses charges, and Captain Sisko tells Miles that the Federation magistrate have decided that Molly should be taken to special care centre for evaluation, but Miles knows they'll end up keeping her there. Down in the holding cell, as Molly paces Bashir reports that her body is flooded with adrenaline due to her confinement, and that there's a risk of her going into shock. Molly then notices her parents and starts to continually throw herself into the forcefield to reach her father regardless of the pain. The deputy is forced to turn the forcefield off after which Molly starts to get wild again and is sedated. Bashir gives Miles a simple fact; Molly needs open spaces all the time which is something she's unlikely to get at a special care centre. Bashir will recommend she be put into a holosuite for the time being, but this is only a short term solution as eventually they'll need to put her on a transport. Later, the O'Briens decide that it is best for their daughter if they get her home, knowing that she'll die otherwise. They take her back to Golana to send her back into the past through the portal with the intent of destroying the gate when she will be through. But, because of the erratic functioning of the gate, Molly is sent back in time around the same moment the young Molly was originally sent. The 18-year-old Molly understands that the little girl is what the O'Briens were looking for and indicate her the way to the portal. As the little Molly crosses into the present, the older version of herself vanishes, having never existed. Memorable Quotes "By the way, what does... "gung-gung-gung" mean?" "Why do you ask?" "It was the strangest thing. When I was taking Yoshi home, he kept shaking his rattle and saying ''gung-gung-gung. " "''He did?" "He seemed to get a big kick out of it. What does it mean?" "That is between Yoshi and me." : - Dax and Worf "I am a Klingon warrior and a Starfleet officer. I have piloted starships through Dominion minefields. I have stood in battle against Kelvans twice my size. I have courted and won the heart of the magnificent Jadzia Dax. If I can do these things, I can make this child go to sleep." "Talk about losing perspective." : - Worf and Dax Background Information *The working title of this episode was "Out of Time". *The story for this episode was originally conceived for TNG when the production team had considered writing Alexander out of the series. In the original version, Alexander had fallen into a time portal while on a trip with Worf and had been retrieved as an older and incredibly embittered Klingon warrior. The episode was never produced as Michael Piller was not keen on killing off the character, although the idea of an older Alexander from the future came to be used in the episode . *The console Chief O'Brien uses to operate the time portal is a re-use of the console he and Dr. Bashir used to deactivate the Harvester bio-weapons from the Season 2 episode . It bears a vague similarity to the console from . *After a piece of equipment in the background explodes, Chief O'Brien can be heard saying "Bollocks!". *This story has some things in common with the real-life tale of and other feral children. When the older Molly is found, she has large scars on her neck, as Victor did. *This episode marks the final appearance of Chester, the O'Brien's cat (which Miles acquired during the events of Honor Among Theives. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 6.12, . *As part of the DS9 Season 6 DVD collection. Links and References Guest Stars *Rosalind Chao as Keiko O'Brien *Michelle Krusiec as Adult Molly O'Brien *Hana Hatae as Molly O'Brien Co-Stars *Shaun Bieniek as Deputy Pinar (credited as "Deputy") *Randy James as Lieutenant Jones (credited as "Security") Uncredited Co-Stars *Tom Morga as Madrat *Mark A. Sheppard as Morn *Chester E. Tripp III as a Starfleet officer in civilian clothing :According to IMDb, assistant stunt coordinator Leslie Hoffman appeared as a bar patron in this episode. This has yet to be verified. Uncredited Stunt Doubles *Simone Boisseree as stunt double for Michelle Krusiec References bat'leth; Delvos Prime; Chester; Golana; Golana melon; hehh-duHpp; Kirayoshi O'Brien; spoon; Tarkalean; time portal |next= }} Category:DS9 episodes de:Das Zeitportal (DS9) es:Time's Orphan nl:Time's Orphan